The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 86
VII.—Profits and Salaries.
VII.—Profits and Salaries..
But those who enjoy the vast unearned income just mentioned cannot all be accurately described as the "idle rich," though they would forego none of it by refusing to work. If they are disposed to increase it by leading active lives, they can do so; and most of them adopt this course to some extent, especially those whose share is in- sufficient for their desires.*
When the members of this endowed class elect to work, they are able to do so under unusually favorable conditions. Associated with them in this respect are the fortunate possessors of exceptional skill in hand or brain and the owners of literary or commercial monopolies of every kind. These workers often render inestimable service to the community, and they are able to exact in return remuneration proportionate neither to their utility, nor to the cost of their edu- cation or training, but to the relative scarcity of the faculty they possess. (See Professor F. A. Walker, "Principles of Political Economy.")
The numbers and total income of this large class cannot be exactly ascertained. It includes workers of all grades, from the exceptionally skilled artizan to the Prime Minister, and from the city clerk to the President of the Royal Academy.
It is convenient, for statistical purposes, to include in it all those who do not belong to the "manual-labor class." So defined, this prosperous body may be estimated to receive for its work about £360,000,000 annually.†
£ | |
Mr. R. Giffen : total income less rent, interest, and wages of manual-labor class ("Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p 404) | 313,000,000 |
Mr. Mulhall : ditto ("Dictionary of Statistics," p. 28) | 350,000,000 |
Professor A. Marshall : earnings of all above the manual-labor class ("Report of Indus- trial Remuneration Conference," p. 194) | 300,000,000 |
Mr. Mulhall : income of tradesmen class only ("Dictionary of Statistics,'" p. 246) | 244,000,000 |
Mr. R. Giffen : salaries of superintendence assessed to income-tax alone ("Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 404) | 180,000,000 |
* As the unearned income is not equally distributed, some of the participants are in comparatively humble circumstances; but it may be observed that the "manuallabor class," or the poor, possess practically none of it, the total capital of savings banks, trade unions, benefit, building, co-operative, and mutual societies of every sort being only £185,036,591 in 1889 according to the Blue Book Report (see Fabian Tract No. 7, "Capital and Land," p. 8, where particulars are given), or less than 2 per cent, of the total accumulated wealth, and about £14 per head of the adult workers in the "manual-labor class," even supposing the whole was owned by members of that class. Against this, too, must be set the debts of the laborers to shopkeepers and others, which amount, in the aggregate, to a considerable sum.
† Some of this might, from another point of view, be reckoned rather as interest on the cost of education of valuable servants of the community, and accordingly deducted from this total and added to that of interest. In forming this estimate allowance has been made, as in the previous computations, for the increase during the seven or eight years since the estimates quoted were formed.